We’re lucky enough to have a backyard garden despite living close to the center of Courtenay. Not only is our garden a source of food for us, many insects (and other animals) visit as well. I spent some time watching bumble bees and honey bees gathering pollen and nectar but was really fascinated by the work of wasps and hornets – species that we tend to forget about when thinking about pollinators.

The challenge in photographing insects is that they usually don’t go where you want them to go and they’re generally moving too fast to capture a good image (such was the case with the bees in the garden). The best strategy is to find a good position and wait. There is something meditative about the process.

I captured some good images of White-faced hornets (Dolichovespula maculata) on our raspberry flowers and European Paper Wasps (Polistes dominulus) that have built a nest in our wood shed.